Roger Newman Turner
I was the first-born child of Frank and Lorna Newman Turner and, reputedly, the first child born at a new maternity hospital in Radlett, Hertfordshire in the early dark days of the Second World War. My father, who held diplomas in agriculture and dairying from Leeds University, registered as a conscientious objector and, in 1941, was put in charge of Goosegreen Farm on the Somerset levels. Goosegreen was used for COs who did not wish to contribute directly to the war effort and it was where my father put into practice his growing belief in organic husbandry and natural rearing and treatment of animals.
It was at Goosegreen, and later at the Ferne Estate in Wiltshire, to which we moved in 1953, that I learned the importance of ‘health from the soil up’ and the ethos of respect for all living things (my parents became vegetarians in the early 1940s), and peaceful co-existence which have been guiding principles throughout my life.
After schooling at St Andrew’s, a small private school near Bridgewater, and Sidcot, a Quaker school in the heart of the Mendip Hills, I graduated from the British College of Naturopathy and Osteopathy in 1963. In 1958 our family had moved to Letchworth Garden City so that my brothers, Giles and Adam, could attend the progressive, vegetarian St Christopher School. My father, in a natural progression from animal to human health, also established a practice as a medical herbalist and naturopath in addition to his herbal consultancy in London. After his sudden death in 1964, I took over the practices in Letchworth and London.
My work as a naturopathic physician, osteopath, and acupuncturist has given me the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world, while a vibrant local cultural scene has enabled me actively to pursue an interest in acting and singing which I developed at boarding school. With my wife, Birgid, we have raised two talented children, Nicole, the Development Director for English National Opera, and Julian, a photographer and actor, both of whom attended St Christopher School when younger.
Julian’s daughter, Jade, is now an even stronger reason for us to make a better world for hers and future generations.